OAKLAND / City to sue Caltrans over trash on roads / Agency's failure to maintain areas near freeways is 'nuisance'

Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Monday, August 8, 2005

Photo: Liz Mangelsdorf

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Oakland City Attorney John Russo at the Editorial Board meeting on Monday, Feb. 3, 2003. Chronicle Photo by Liz Mangelsdorf. Ran on: 06-28-2004
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OAKLAND / City to sue Caltrans over trash on roads / Agency's failure to maintain areas near freeways is 'nuisance'

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The city of Oakland plans to sue the state Department of Transportation for failing to clean up trash and prevent dumping on dozens of Caltrans properties, mainly along Interstates 880 and 580.

City Attorney John Russo plans to file suit today in Alameda County Superior Court, the latest salvo in a long-running dispute between a city anxious to spruce up its image and an agency that operates one of the nation's largest highway networks on a tight budget.

The lawsuit comes just days after Oakland city officials and Caltrans wrangled over an illegal skateboard park under I-580 at the MacArthur Maze. Volunteers who built the concrete skate ramps said Caltrans had allowed its property to fill with trash and homeless encampments.

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The city's complaint accuses Caltrans of creating a public nuisance by failing to keep up its property along medians, overpasses, vacant lots and other undeveloped areas near the freeways. The suit does not focus on the condition of the actual freeways or bridges.

"The nuisance conditions of (Caltrans) properties substantially and unreasonably injure the health, offend the senses and interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property of the residents of Oakland and entire city neighborhoods," the city states in its complaint. It claims Caltrans has failed to stop the accumulation of "offensive, dangerous, unsanitary and unhealthy matter" on its property.

Caltrans officials have not seen the document and did not respond to its claims. They said in earlier correspondence with Oakland officials that the city did not have the legal authority to force the state agency to make decisions about its property.

Community groups and City Council representatives said their complaints about conditions in the blue-collar neighborhoods of West and East Oakland typically go unanswered.

"We have lots of constituents complaining about all of the disgusting, crappy things under Caltrans property," said Amanda Brown-Stevens, an aide to Councilwoman Nancy Nadel. "The Emeryville-Oakland border and under the maze --

these Caltrans properties are just wastelands that are just left to fester. So many people support the skaters because it's the only positive thing happening on all that property."

Residents said they feel the agency would heed complaints from wealthier suburban communities.

Russo said the city has as much authority to compel Caltrans to clear trash from its much larger holdings as it does to force the owners of homes and small businesses to clean up their property under the public nuisance section of the Oakland municipal code.

His office sends nuisance-abatement letters every few weeks to the owners of liquor stores, apartment buildings, private homes and vacant lots, Russo said. The issues are usually settled before the city files suit.

"If you're going to go after working-class people over the condition of their property, why doesn't the state of California have an obligation to take care of its property?" Russo said.

"Despite the city's best efforts to work with Caltrans to improve maintenance of certain properties," Russo said, "Caltrans refuses to enter into an agreement for regular maintenance of blighted areas."

Beginning in October, Oakland has formally asked Caltrans several times to clean up specific properties along 880 and 580, and the agency has refused, according to the city's complaint.

Russo said his suit is the last resort. He said Caltrans officials have agreed orally to clean up specific problem areas but refused to sign an agreement to keep up its properties.

Union Pacific railroad signed such an agreement with the city after repeated complaints about trash along its tracks, Russo said. Under that agreement, the railroad cleans up the property, or city employees remove the trash and then bill the company.

"We've never had any problems since," Russo said. "Union Pacific has been a good neighbor."

It's unclear whether other California cities or counties have sued Caltrans over similar issues. Both Los Angeles and San Francisco complained of homeless encampments and large-scale dumping along freeways in the 1990s.

Oakland has tried since the late 1990s to prevent illegal dumping and to force owners to clean up their property. The city often tows abandoned cars and hauls away discarded appliances, tires and construction materials.

Oakland city officials said Caltrans workers did not realize the popular but illicit skate park was under I-580 for more than a year, even though it includes sloping 8- to 10-foot-tall walls and ramps that are visible from a nearby street.

Workers found the skate park when they went to warn people living under the freeway to leave because the area was to be used for storage during a construction project.

"They hadn't looked under that freeway for 14 months," Russo said. "That proves my case that Caltrans is not performing routine maintenance of its property. It is proof that Caltrans does not respect Oakland neighborhoods."

To accompany his lawsuit, Russo collected declarations from many Oakland residents about their long history of complaining about trash on Caltrans property adjacent to 580, 880 and Highway 13.

"The condition of the Caltrans property is so bad as to make it dangerous, " wrote Carolyn Vallerga, who lives near a Caltrans park-and-ride lot at the Fruitvale Avenue exit on I-580. "Caltrans' park-and-ride station is filthy. It looks abandoned, not only because of the trash but also due to the lack of maintenance. The foliage is dead, the sprinklers are broken, and the bike racks are so beat up that they are unusable. The chain-link fence is bust up in parts and has holes, making it useless and ugly."

Both Nadel, who represents West Oakland, and Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, who represents the Fruitvale area in East Oakland, have long complained that Caltrans contributes to the negative images of their districts.

"The reality is that Caltrans has not been a very good partner with the city of Oakland," De La Fuente said. "We have had many, many encounters with Caltrans. Their property is basically a dumping ground. It is embarrassing to see the trash all over the exits on freeways. For many people, that is their first impression of Oakland as they get off the freeway: piles of trash."

De La Fuente, who on Friday brokered a deal with Caltrans not to demolish the illegal skate park while the city plans how to take it over, said the lawsuit is unfortunate but necessary to improving relations with Caltrans.

"The skate park is a good example," he said. "Caltrans can learn to be a more responsive neighbor."